People in Italy have started posting videos where they are touching themselves for 10 seconds in protest of a judge’s ruling due to which a school caretaker who was accused of groping a 17-year-old girl, was acquitted.
A public prosecutor has asked for a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for the accused but the judge cleared him as what happened to the girl “does not constitute a crime” as it lasted less than 10 seconds. The judges said the caretaker groped the girl briefly in an “awkward maoeuvre without lust”, as per media reports.
What happened to the 17-year-old girl?
The case involves a 17-year-old high school student in Rome. The girl alleged that as she was walking up stairs with a friend, she felt her trousers fall down. She realised a hand was touching her buttocks and grabbing her underwear. When she turned around, the school caretaker told her, “Love, you know I was joking.” The incident occurred in April 2022. The student had reported the 66-year-old caretaker, Antonio Avola, to the police.
Italians’ reaction to the judge’s ruling
Post the ruling, ‘palpata breve- a brief groping, has been trending in Italy on Instagram and TikTok, along with the ‘#10secondi’ hashtag, the BBC has reported. Italians have been posting a ten second video of them touching their intimate parts for 10 seconds straight. The first such video was reportedly posted by White Lotus actor Paolo Camilli, following which thousands of people shared similar videos.
Several famous social media influencers posted their videos. One such influencer, Francesco Cicconetti, wrote on TikTok, “Who decides that 10 seconds is not a long time? Who times the seconds, while you’re being harassed?”
How did the girl react to the judge’s ruling?
The teenager at the centre of the case told Corriere della Sera newspaper that the incident was “no joke to her”. She said the man groped her bottom and then pulled her up, hurting her private parts. “For me, this is not a joke. This is not how an old man should ‘joke’ with a teenager,” she said. The girl feels “doubly betrayed” by her school and the justice system.